Only Noise
by TornPageDyedRed
Summary: His skills are variable but plenty. Rumored to adapt well enough that he can turn anything into a weapon. His tactics are as flexible as he himself is. But even with plans the unexpected can happen. Now his training to fight if his hearing is compromised pays off, leaving him only without communication. The only thing he hasn't planned for is the truth. A deaf!Clink fanfiction.
1. Intro: Author Note

Okay this is an optional read. Meaning you can skip it. The only thing you really need to know before I start is this key:

/Writing\

[sign language]

"talking"

(Side notes)

regular

_thoughts_

**important**

_**UBER IMPORTANT Thought**_

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_**Alright before I begin this story I would like to let you into my head real quick. So my friend recently dragged me into her obsession with Marvel like she did with Fire Emblem before hand. (Even though she scoff at me at the rare times I fangirl, guess I'm just too nice) Anyway whenever I get interested in something I love to fixate on normally unpopular or hardly used aspects of it. Hense why I became interested in the older comic Hawkeye being 80% deaf. Now as will all great creators the best ideas come in the shower and after reading fanfics all day today (I really need better hobbies I swear but insomnia doesn't exactly make it easy) I came to realize something important. In almost all the fanfics they focused on how much of a liability the deafness was and it seemed to make him hard to function.**_

_**Now I am going to sidetrack for a moment and let you in on something of myself. When I was a child I got struck in the nose with a baseball which caused it to swell and gush for almost an entire day. I had almost broke it. Ever since then I hardly ever am able to have bloody noses, my breathing is more labored through such, and I can easily pop it near the bridge. But I have also learned that my sense of smell is compromised and what I can smell is typically through my mouth as opposed to my nose (before you flame about how that isn't possible or my taste buds are compromised as well I will tell you this. For all I know how I taste things can be completely wrong from your ability to taste. I wouldn't know any better because I have had my nose like this since I was rather young.) which means I can really only detect the strongest of smells and they will often linger in my mouth for an hour afterwords. Now since it is only distortion and not complete loss I do not have a great increase of my other senses. Though, as a way of helping to tell if food is bad before I eat it, my mouth is more sensitive to textures. If a cherry in a cake is bad I can pick up a hardness or an unnatural squishiness or if I don't notice meat is bad but it feels too wet compared to regular meat I will spit it out. Though it gives me a run for my money when eating oatmeal and makes me near incapable of stomaching fat and in some cases marshmallows. Wow. I have gotten really off track. So time to get back to my point.**_

_**While there are disadvantages to having messed up smell (not noticing possible rotting, oblivious to certain chemical smells, most likely things that may give my trouble in chemistry) as well as certain tasting problems, I have adapted to it to the point where I don't really focus on it unless I really think about it. So now then to lead this to the topic on hand.**_

_**Given that Hawkeye has supposedly been deaf for years then it doesn't seem likely that the moment he loses his hearing aids he is a liability. With his personality and such the likely hood of him not training himself to be able to continue to fight on if his hear is compromised is an oddity. While the chance of being snuck up on is increased there are certain ways he can find his way to deal with the increase and be careful enough to handle these problems.**_

_**1. Keep his back to the wall. If someone is going to seek up on him there they have to come from above or break the wall. From above he would see a shadow depending on the light angle. And breaking through a wall is painfully obvious especially if one's back is against it.**_

_**2. He can pick a metal roof, wood, or catwalk. Vibrations are more likely to come through those surfaces as opposed to solid stone or concrete.**_

_**3. Keep his back to the light and use the projections of shadows to his advantage.**_

_**4. If all else fails he can go back to back with someone.**_

_**In short my fanfic will focus less about it being a MAJOR EARTH SHATTERING LIABILITY to more of him simply not telling because it really only effects communication, he doesn't know them well enough, and he is slightly embarrassed to admit it. Anyway that is how this fanfiction idea was born. I will update with an actual chapter tonight. As for the other fanfictions I will work on them eventually. Wow, priority much?**_

_**With lots of Love, TPDR**_


	2. Preemptive Measures

**Disclaimer: This is on for a reason. If I owned it, I would have no reason to post it here.**

**Hope you enjoy.**

**NOTE/ I wrote this late last night so if you are starting this today or checking it I suggest you re-read it. I made it better.**

**PS/ I will give the time by the point of view. It is base on military time. Just in case anyone is wondering about the numbers.**

**PSS/ Hawkeye will slur. If you have problems with it try pronouncing it out loud. It helps.**

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**Hawkeye.1532.**

_Shit... _

That was the only word he could think of as the buzzing rung in his ears before fading to little more than muffled drone ending in silence. With a hiss at the shocking pain in his ear Clint tore out the devices, discarding them in disgust. For all of SHIELD's brilliant minds they seemed to struggle with actually making something that didn't short out every time they were wet, electrically charged, or given high enough frequencies. Stark's armor was less likely to be blown up and it was a giant metal target.

In front of him the robot emitted the shock-inducing sonic screech once more, the same high frequency that has shorted out his hearing aids and was likely going to give Mr. All-America a migraine for the next few hours. Heck it would probably leave everyone with ringing in their ears for the next hour or two. But Clint, who heard the muffle noise little more than echoes like someone permanently submerged in water, was able to shoot the robot's blaster and clog it so a simple fire was all it took to get it down.

Then he was in motion, slinging his bow onto his back and flying down onto a window-washer's platform. The view from the roof was better, true, but in the turbulent contraption simply the presence of another would send it into motion, as would any tampering with the ropes. Without hearing, vibration came to be the next asset against an attack from his rear. True by the time he felt anything Clint would only have moments to react, but hey, that's what made it fun.

Hazel blue eyes squinted down back on the team he had to turn his back on for those few moments. Their positions were currently scattered and crouched in response to the sonic waves that assaulted their ears. _Guess I get to play the knight in shining armor. _Clint thought with a grin before loosing arrow after arrow at the unsuspecting metal tin-cans who felt they had the advantage.

As the noise ended, or at least it appeared that way to Clint for they were rising and uncovering their ears. A few looks were shot up at him, thankful expressions. Then the leader's mouth began to move in what was surely an attempt to communicate orders. Only a moment did it take for Clint to let loose a string of curses rivaling his earlier arrow barrage before the idea came to him to select an arrow, remove the knife he always kept on him just in case, and etch a message onto the side in quick letters. /Comm broke. Don't yell, can't hear. Morse Code.\

**Captain America.1541.**

Steve flinched as the familiar arrow stuck itself into the ground inches in front of his feet. Mere moments before had he struggled to attempt to re-establish communications with the hawk above, his own communicator fried which led him to believe surely Clint's was as well. His heart half fluttered in relief at the sign that the archer was able to notice. But at the same time he realized that it was odd that Clint had fired when there were no enemies left standing.

Curiosity lead him to pick up the arrow and a quick assessment showed Steve the writing. In response he smashed his shield in the rhythm **short-long-short-pause-short-pause-long-long-short-pause-short-long-short-pause-long-long-long-pause-short-short-long-pause-short-long-long-short*** to show he got the message and at the same time Steve hoped Clint understood what me meant. The others paused the slightest out of confusion and Tony chirped in himself with a little, "Trying out Garage Band on the battlefield, Mr Patriotism?" Only Natasha fixed a knowing look on Cap before fixing her gaze on the now-descending Hawkeye.

**Skip.1600.**

"Clint? Cliiinnt!? Clinty Clinty!? Anyone home!?" Tony called back to the archer who had remained silent ever since they had met up, he reported to Steve on the perimeter and his, with the only thing he had said being a very thick, almost drunk-like, "All clear. And I'm fine." Which of course warranted concern toward a possible head injury that only spiked at the silence continued with his eyes blankly forward. Even now Clint showed no sign he heard. Either he was very good at tuning Tony out, which he was, or something else was amiss.

Steve, noticing Tony's frustration, reached over to tap Clint on the shoulder, which sparked a slight jump in the other man and a noticeable restraint toward the reflex to fly around and pin the other person.

"Ya need somethin'?" His voice was heavy but, as far as Steve could tell, there was no scent of alcohol on his breath. _Maybe he is just tired... After all it probably takes a lot of focus for him to not miss once. _The leader surmised in his attempt to comfort himself and keep from hovering too much. Everyone had learned rather quickly that Hawkeye was prone to episodes to anti-social behavior only to be breached by his regular sarcasm. Even after working with him for over a month, Steve knew little more than what Clint's file had to say and even then it was only the basic clearance stuff like name, birth country/state, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, rank, and codename. Beyond that there was only the likes and dislikes Steve had managed to notice.

"Tony wants to talk to you,"

"Then'e oughtta take off 'is mask'n we can talk face-t-face like normal people. Kinda awkward talkin' with a dent'd robot head 'n takin' i' seriously," The smirk that dripped from Clint's quirked lips as he eyed Tony made Steve swim with relief as the other man, who responded with something similar with a groan, removed his mask. But at the same time the larger blonde couldn't help the edge of doubt that crept up on him as he heard Clint slur even worse than before.

"Better princess?"

"Much. Thank'a bolt-brain,"

Tony visibly bristled as Clint leaned back with a lazy chuckle, before sighing out a slurred, "Imma take'a nap," and placing on his shades. Steve turned his head to Tony, catching the suspicious glint in the other man's eye that showed he wasn't the only one who noticed. But before he could bring up his worries he felt Natasha's piercing gaze in his back.

"His ears might still be ringing," Banner's mumble brought the super soldier and Black Widow's attention around and they both set their gaze on the slight physicist. Bruce sunk back as if just now realizing he had spoken out loud. But, in realizing he was already too deep to back out, the Doctor continued, "SHIELD issue comms screech before they cut out when they short and he is the only one who has not received one that Tony made,"

"Yep! Even IF my communicators short out, they only go dead," Tony spoke as if showing off a prized pony, head lifted and eyes sparkling with pride in a way that Steve couldn't help but sigh. If only Thor was here rather than helping out back in Asgard. Then he wouldn't be the only one lost by this tech stuff. His eyes slid self-consciously back to Natasha, who was continuing to study him while occasionally flickering her gaze on the back of Clint's head, expression as unreadable as always. That alone is what made the horrible dark feeling bubble back to the surface. The feeling that something was wrong.

Only when the car come to a stop and the archer shot up without waking did that feeling fester any further. Steve's heart pushed him to try and reach out, to see what was wrong, because his gut said there had to be something. But before he could so much as unbuckle, the more agile man was already vanishing inside. Natasha pushed past the suddenly stilled leader with ease, vanishing inside after Clint without a word. The exchange was strange, but Steve appeared the only one to take concern.

Even as he entered and Tony began talking about celebratory pizza and Bruce was reminding him they should report to Fury first, Steve's mind was on the other two who he could see vanishing into the kitchen. Maybe when they came out he could get a straight answer... Maybe then...

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***In International Morse Code this translates in which the shorts are dots, the longs are dashes, and the pauses are breaks between letters. So in English it would be R-E-G-R-O-U-P.***

**I will try and update soon but for now I think this is a pretty decent chapter (Or in update language a lot better than it started out). Review and tell me what you think. Until next time, see ya!**


End file.
